Method and system configured to assess a fee for communication facilitation regarding publication information

ABSTRACT

A method and system are configured to assess a fee for communication facilitation. An electronic publication system includes a publication module configured to generate a user interface. The user interface includes search result information associated with a first entity and communication initiation information associated with the first entity. The communication initiation information includes identification information configured to identify a contact module of the first entity. The communication initiation information may be selectable to facilitate communication with the first entity. The publication system also includes a receiving module configured to receive a lead data record from a communication system for communication between the first entity and a second entity via the contact module. The publication system also includes a fee assessment module configured to receive the lead data record and to assess a fee to the first entity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 11/744,349, filed May 4, 2007, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates generally to the technical field of electroniccommunications.

BACKGROUND

Responsive to viewing published information (e.g., search results or anadvertisement), a consumer may wish to initiate contact with an entityassociated with the published information. For example, where thepublished information is an article or a listing describing a product orservice, a consumer may wish to contact the seller to obtain furtherdetails regarding the product or service, or to negotiate for thepurchase of the goods or services. Similarly, where the publishedinformation is an advertisement, a consumer may wish to initiate contactwith the seller that has posted the advertisement.

Consumers are often discouraged from initiating such contact because ofthe effort required. For example, the contact process may require theconsumer to look up the telephone number or email address of the seller,and then to manually dial the telephone number (or type in the emailaddress) for the purpose of initiating communications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Example embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitationin the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like referencesindicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a system diagram, according to an embodiment, illustratingcomputer systems, a network, a publication system, and a communicationsystem;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are search result interfaces according to embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a method associated with feeassessment for facilitation of communications, according to anembodiment; and

FIG. 5 shows a diagrammatic representation of machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of example embodiments. It may be evident, however, to oneskilled in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced withoutthese specific details.

In an embodiment, A method and system are configured to assess a fee forcommunication facilitation regarding publication information. Anelectronic publication system includes a publication module configuredto generate a user interface based on an information search. The userinterface includes search result information associated with a firstentity and communication initiation information associated with thefirst entity. The communication initiation information includesidentification information configured to identify a contact module ofthe first entity. The communication initiation information is configuredto be selectable to facilitate communication between a second entity andthe first entity. The publication system also includes a receivingmodule configured to receive a lead data record from a communicationsystem that facilitates communication between the first entity and asecond entity via the contact module upon selection of the communicationinitiation information generated from the publication module. Thepublication system also includes a fee assessment module configured toreceive the lead data record from the receiving module and to assess afee to the first entity based on the lead data record.

in an embodiment, a communication system facilitates communicationbetween the first entity and a second entity via the contact module uponselection of the communication initiation information. The communicationsystem tracks the communication between the entities as a lead datarecord. The communication system sends the lead data record to thepublication system, which assesses a fee to the first entity based onthe lead data record.

FIG. 1 is a system diagram, and illustrates a computer system 10 (e.g.,client computer or other networked device) utilized by an entity (e.g.,viewing user 12) to access a network 14 (e.g., the Internet) to therebycommunicate with a publication system 16, as well as computer systems 18(e.g., client computer or other networked device) of other users orentities (e.g., a publishing user 20) that may publish informationutilizing the publication system 16. It may be appreciated that theentity described above need not be embodied as a human user and may beembodied as a software agent. For example, the software agent may beembodied as bookfinder.com of Berkley, Calif. or as mySimon made by CNETNetworks, Inc. It may further be appreciated that a human user is notlimited to interacting with another human user but may interact with asoftware agent.

The computer system 10 (e.g., client computer) is shown to host a clientmodule, in the example form of a browser application 13 (e.g., MSInternet Explorer, or FireFox browser), and a contact module 22. Thecontact module 22 may include a Voice over Internet Protocol contactmodule for VoIP communications, an electronic message contact module foremail communications, a URL web site contact module for web pagecommunications, and an instant message contact module for IMcommunications. In each instance, communication information may beselectable to initiate the respective type of communication.

The publication system 16 includes a database 23 and a publicationmodule 29 that hosts a user interface generator 31 (e.g., HTMLGenerator) and a search subsystem 37. The publication system 16 also mayinclude a transceiving (or receiving) module 35 to communicate withcommunication system 24 and to receive lead data record(s) from thecommunication system 24, and a fee assessment module 39 to assess a feebased on the lead data record, including communication options andselections.

The publication module 29 may be configured to publish information, suchas listing information associated with the first entity, and may includethe user interface generator 31 configured to electronically publish thelisting information in association with communication initiationinformation (such as contact information 44 of FIG. 2). The informationmay be published at information 40 in the computer system 10, asdiscussed in more detail below.

In FIG. 1, in a specific example embodiment, the publication system 16includes the search sub-system 37 through which a user may submit asearch query to the publication system 16. The publication system 16 mayprovide search results in response, the search results pertaining toinformation (e.g., publication data) stored by the publication system 16at database 23 or accessible at other computer systems via the network14. For example, the viewing user 12, utilizing the browser application13, may navigate to a search input interface presented by thepublication system 16 through the search subsystem 37, and input asearch query (e.g., diamond earrings). The search query may becommunicated to the publication system 16 via the network 14 and/or maybe communicated to the network 14 via the system 16. Responsive to thesearch query, the publication system 16 may generate at generator 31,and communicate to the computer system 10, a user interface in the formof an HTML file 40 that embodies the search results. The HTML file 40may be sent to the computer system 10 as an HTTP communication fordisplay by the browser application 13 or may, for example, be embodiedin an email message sent to an email client that may execute on thecomputer system 10. In other embodiments, the communication from thepublication system 16 to the computer system 10 may be formatted asXHTML, WML, XML, files or a file utilizing other descriptor languageformats.

The user interface generator 31 is configured to generate a userinterface of publication information 40 to electronically publish thelisting information in association with communication initiationinformation. The communication initiation information may includeidentification information (e.g., a link) to identify a contact module22 of the first entity as discussed in more detail herein. Thecommunication initiation information (e.g., the link) may be selectableto initiate a communication from the second entity (e.g., a viewinguser) to the first entity (e.g., a publishing user) regarding, forexample, the listing information of the first entity. The user interfacegenerator 31 generates the HTML file 40 to include contact information(e.g., communication initiation information) that are displayed inassociation with appropriate instances of published information. TheHTML file 40 is communicated via the network 14 to the computer system10 for display by the browser application 13.

In one embodiment, the contact information 44 (e.g., link) includesidentification information in the form of a VoIP address or IM address,which may be retrieved from table 50 of database 23, as well as aninstruction to invoke the VoIP module or IM module, which may or may notbe resident on the computer system 10. Other possible contact modulesare illustrated and discussed herein.

The communication system 24 is connected to the network 14 to facilitatecommunication between the first entity 12 and second entity 20. Thecommunication system 24 includes a communication module 25, atransceiving/transmitting module 26 to communicate with the transceiverof the publication system 16, and a tracking module 27 to storeinformation in a database 28. The communication module 25 facilitatescommunication between the entities via, the contact module 22 uponselection of the communication initiation information in the generateduser interface 40. The communication system 24 tracks the communicationbetween the entities as a lead data record. The communication systemsends the lead data record to the transceiving module 35 of thepublication system 16. The transceiving module 35 is configured toreceive the lead data record from the communication system 24 and tosend the lead data record for storage in the database 23. The lead datarecord is sent to the fee assessment module 39 for processing toassesses a fee to the first entity based on the lead data record. Thefee assessment module 39 may receive the lead data record from thedatabase 23 or directly from the transceiving module 35.

The fee assessment module 39 may, for instance, assess different feesbased on several factors, including profile of the first entity, profileof the second entity, pre-populated information transmitted with acommunication, contact module type selected, contact module featuresselected (number of contact modules offered in search results andprominence of contact module, e.g., bold or highlight), and otherfactors that may influence the likelihood of selection of the contactmodule and purchase of products and/or services of the first entity bythe second entity.

The contact module type may be selected from a group including a voiceover internet protocol (VoIP) contact module, an electronic messagecontact module, a telephone number contact module (e.g., toll-free orlocal to the second entity), a URL contact module, and an instantmessaging contact module, for instance.

In one embodiment, the communication initiation information may includeidentification information (e.g., call identifier, URL, etc.) thatidentifies the contact module (e.g., voice over interact protocol (VoIP)module, browser application, instant messaging module, electronicmessage module, web page, or other contact module) and/or a networkaddress of the second party (e.g., a hypertext link, a Voice over IPnetwork address, a phone number, an instant messaging (IM) networkaddress, an email address, web address, or other network address). Inone embodiment, the communication system 24 opens a selection-associatedcommunication user interface upon selection of the communicationinitiation information on the user interface 40 of the publicationmodule 29 (for example, the SKYPE® interface is opened on the system10).

The communication module 25 may send, to the first entity, informationregarding the second entity, e.g., pre-populating the second entity withrelevant information. The information sent may be selected from a groupincluding reputation or feedback information, previous purchasecategories and habits, previous selling categories and habits,demographic information, contact information, and system useridentification. The information may be accessed by the module 25 fromthe database 23, from the database 28, or from the network 14.

The user interface generator 31 may associate the communicationinitiation information of the first entity with a relevant term in thepublication data, such as the search term. For example, where thecommunication initiation information includes identification informationthat includes a hypertext link, the identified term (e.g. “iPod” or“Zen”) may be hypertext linked to a website operated by a relevantmerchant or service provider. Similarly, where the communicationinitiation information includes identification information that includesa VoIP module, the identified term may be associated with a URL that maybe used to invoke the VoIP module to initiate a call to the relevantmerchant or service provider. In this way, when the publication data isdisplayed to a viewing user 12 (e.g., a second entity), the viewing user12 may select the identified term (or an icon associated at the relevantterm) to initiate communications with the first entity 18. Again, thesecommunications may be a web session, a VoIP session, an IM session or anemail communication, for example.

The tracking module 27 tracks the communication and the selectedcommunication type between the entities as a lead data record in thedatabase 28. The tracking module 27 tracks a beginning time for thecommunication between the entities, an ending time, and a contact moduletype. The transmitting module 26 sends the lead data record to thepublication system 16 for fee assessment, as discussed herein.

As shown in FIG. 2, the HTML file 40 may be rendered by the browserapplication 13 to generate a search result interface 32, which isdisplayed by the computer system 10 to the viewing user 12. The examplesearch result interface 32 is shown to display an original search query34 responsive to which the search results were generated, a number ofsearch results 36, and paid-placement advertisements 38. The publicationsystem user interface 40 may include contact information 44 (e.g.,communication initiation information) associated with a search result 41(e.g., publication information). Contact information 44, such ascommunication initiation information in the form of a contactinformation or link (e.g., a “call” button), may be associated with thesearch result instance 41, and similarly, contact information 46 may beassociated with advertisement 42. In each instance, the relevantinformation (e.g., link) is rendered, by the browser application 13, inassociation with either the search result instance or the advertisementas a result of the inclusion within or insertion into the HTML file 40of appropriate coding.

The publication system user interface 40 may include the communicationinitiation information (contact information 44) associated with thepublication information (e.g., search result 41). In an exampleembodiment, in addition to including a hypertext-link in a search resultinstance (or an advertisement) in the HTML tile 40, communicationinitiation information (e.g., a selectable text or some other selectablecharacter, such as icon) may be associated with a search result instance(or an advertisement). The selectable text may be user-selectable ormachine-selectable to invoke the contact module 22 to initiate anappropriate communication session utilizing information embedded in theHTML file 40.

Turning now to operations that occur at the computer system 10, when aviewing user 12 is presented with the search result interface 32, theviewing user 12 may click and select a communication link (e.g., button44 or button 46). User selection of the contact module link is detectedby the browser application 13, and the underlying instruction andcontact module address are processed. In one embodiment, the link (e.g.,the communication initiation information) may include identificationinformation in the form of a universal resource locater (e.g., networkaddress) that instructs the browser application 13 as to the identityand/or location of the contact module (e.g., VoIP module) on the clientcomputer. Further, the identification information may also includeparameters that are passed by the browser application 13 to the contactmodule 22, the parameters including a network address of the computersystem 18 or the publishing user 20 and other parameters that mayfacilitate communication. In the present example, the link may be a calllink, and responsive to the relevant instruction, the browserapplication 13 may invoke the VoIP module, and may communicate the VoIPaddress of the publishing user 20 to the VoIP module. The VoIP modulethen proceeds to initiate a VoIP call (e.g., to a telephone number or toa further VoIP module executing on another computer system 18). In thismanner, the viewing user 12 is conveniently able to initiatecommunications with the publishing user 20. Similarly, other contactmodules may be used to conveniently initiate communications, asdiscussed herein.

Communication initiation information for multiple entities may beassociated with a search term (or terms) of publication data. Forexample, where a search term for an entity within a predeterminedproximity is entered into the search query 34, the identificationinformation for a number of entities may be displayed as items 41 in thesearch results 36 of the search result interface 32, as shown in FIG. 2.The displayed information may include contact initiation information 44for each of the entities (e.g., telephone numbers, addresses, etc.) andcommunication initiation information 44 associated with the respectiveentities (e.g., links). The user may then initiate communications withone or more of the entities by selecting the user selectable icon (or alink) associated with the communication initiation information to invokethe appropriate contact module (e.g., VoIP module) that is associatedwith the respective entity.

As shown in the examples of FIGS. 2 and 3, the contact information 44(e.g., communication initiation information) is selected from a groupincluding a telephone number 45 (e.g., toll-free or local to the secondentity), an electronic mail link 47, a instant messaging link 48, a URIlink, and a telephone call link 46.

When the selected communication initiation information of the displayedcontact information includes the telephone number 45, the second entityplaces a call from a standard line, either a land-line, a mobile line,thru Skype, or another appropriate medium, to the number that may beassigned to the first entity by the publication system. The numberroutes the call to the communication module 25 of the communicationsystem 24. The tracking module logs the call communication, and thecommunication module 25 then transfers the call to a separatepre-identified telephone number associated with the first entity, e.g.,dialing the number of the first entity and patching the call through.

When the selected communication initiation information includes theelectronic mail link 47, the associated electronic mail address of thefirst entity may be at least initially hidden on the user interface fromthe second entity until selected. After selection, the email address maybe displayed to the second entity, or the email address may be knownwhen/if the first entity replies to the second entity. The email addressmay be a temporary address of the first entity, or may be an addressassociated with the communication module 25 that may forward the emailto the email address of the first entity. The email may be forwardedautomatically or at the direction from the communication module 25. Thetracking module logs the email communication.

When the selected communication initiation information includes theinstant messaging link 48, the associated instant messaging useridentification name of the first entity may be at least initially hiddenon the user interface from the second entity, After selection, the IMuser ID may be displayed to the second entity. The IM address may be atemporary address of the first entity, or may be an address associatedwith the communication module 25 that may forward the message to the IMaddress of the first entity. The IM may be forwarded automatically or atthe direction from the communication module 25. The tracking module logsthe message communication.

When the selected communication initiation information includes thetelephone call link 46, the communication system initiates a Voice OverInternet Protocol telephone call between the first and second entities.The direct telephone number of the first entity may be at leastinitially hidden on the user interface from the second entity. Again,the call may be routed through the communication module 25 to avoidletting the second entity have access to the direct line of the firstentity. The VoIP phone number may be a temporary number associated withthe first entity or may be a number associated with the communicationmodule 25 that may forward the call to the number of the first entity.The call may be forwarded automatically or at the direction from thecommunication module 25. The tracking module logs the communication.

When the selected communication initiation information includes the URLlink (not shown in FIG. 3), the associated URL may be at least hidden onthe user interface from the second entity. Again, after selection, a newwindow may pop-up to reveal the website, and may reveal the URL, aswell. The URL may be a temporary URL associated with the first entity ormay be a URL associated with the communication module 25 that may routethe second entity to the URL of the first entity. The communication maybe routed to the new web page automatically or at the direction from thecommunication module 25. The tracking module logs the communication.

As shown in the examples of FIGS. 2 and 3, considering the searchresults 36 and the advertisements 38, text associated with each searchresult or advertisement is hypertext-linked to a location accessible viathe network 14. For example, hypertext (e.g., a URL) associated witheach search result or advertisement may reference a location on thepublication system 16, or a location at another network domainaccessible via the network 14. For example, consider that where searchresult instance 41 pertains to a product offering by merchant ABC. Textassociated with the search result instance 41 may be hypertext-linked toa website operated by merchant ABC (e.g.,www.merchantABC.com/products/product123). In this example,“merchantABC.com” represents a domain operated by the relevant merchant.Accordingly, user selection of the search result instance 41 may causethe browser application 13 to be redirected to the address“www.merchantABC.com/products/product123,” where further detailsregarding the relevant product may be obtained and displayed within thebrowser application 13. Similarly, text associated with an advertisement42 may be hypertext-linked to a location within a domain operated by arelevant merchant.

The coding associated with the contact information 44, in oneembodiment, may be included in the HTML file 40 delivered to thecomputer system 10. In one embodiment, the information 44 is deliveredif the entity, associated with the relevant publication data (e.g., asearch result instance or the advertisement) has satisfied one or morecriterion (e.g., has registered with a particular VoIP compatibleservice, or has registered with and/or provided payment to thepublication system 16 for the inclusion of this publicationenhancement). For example, when generating the HTML file 40, thepublication system 16 may access the database 23, and more specificallythe entity table 50 maintained within the database 23, to determinewhether an entity associated with the publication data (e.g., amerchant) is registered with a particular contact module (e.g., has aSkype® User ID) or has made a payment to the publication system 16. Sucha verification may be made for the inclusion of an instant messenger orVoIP call initiation feature in generated HTML files, such that the linkfor instant messenger and/or VoIP call initiation feature is displayedand presented to a user in association with publication informationpublished on behalf of the relevant publishing user (e.g., themerchant). See, for example, FIG. 3, where both the seller-entity andthe buyer-entity are registered to compatible instant messengerplatforms, e.g., Skype®, and the “chat” link is prominently displayedfor selection.

In yet a further embodiment, for each inclusion or insertion ofcommunication initiation information in the HTML file 40 by the userinterface generator 31, an appropriate record of inclusion of thiscommunication initiation information within the publication data may beregistered at the publication system 16 (e.g., within the entity table50). In an embodiment, a first entity (e.g., selling on the publicationsystem) may be charged a certain amount for inclusion of communicationinitiation information (e.g., links) and/or for inclusion of contactinitiation information (e.g., addresses, direct phone numbers) inpublication information that is published by the publication system 16.

Alternatively, or additionally, the first entity may be charged acertain amount for selection of one of the icons or links associatedwith the communication initiation information. The amount charged maydepend upon the type of communication method/contact module chosen bythe second entity and made available by the first entity.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a method 60, according to anembodiment, to facilitate communication. Operations associated with thepublication system 16, operations associated with a computer system 10(e.g., second party), operations associated with the communicationsystem 24, and operations associated with a computer system 18 (e.g.,first party) are illustrated. The method 60 commences at operation 70with a viewing user 12 at the computer system 10 communicating a searchquery to the publication system 16.

At operation 72, the publication system 16 receives the search query,generates search results in the form of the search result interface 32that includes publication information. For example, the search resultinterface 32 may take the form of the HTML file 40 that includespublication information in the form of search result instances 40 andadvertisements 38, and contact information 44 that each may be userselectable to select an associated contact module 22. The HTML file 40may be a user interface. The publication system 16 may publish theresults at the computer system 10.

At operation 74, at the system 10, the viewing user/system may viewand/or receive the search result interface 32 and may selectcommunication initiation information (e.g., links and/or direct contactinformation, depending upon the publishing user contact specifications)associated with the items 41 found in the search. The user interfacegenerator 31 electronically publishes the publication information inassociation with communication information by inserting the links intothe HTML file 40 and enabling the computer system 10 to have access tothe HTML file 40. Further at the operation 72, the publication system 16communicates the HTML file 40 to the computer system 10. In an example,the computer system 10 receives the HTML file 40 and displays the HTMLfile to the viewing user 12. The computer system 10 may display contactbuttons 44 in association with the corresponding search result instances40 and contact buttons 46 in association with correspondingadvertisements 42. Further, at operation 74, the viewing user 12 mayselect a link (e.g., contact information 44 or 46) to initiateappropriate contact module communications with the publishing user 20.

In another embodiment, the publication system 18 may electronicallypublish the publication information in association with communicationinitiation information without first receiving a request for searchresults. In yet another embodiment, a client computer (e.g., computersystem 18) may host the publication system and accordinglyelectronically publish the publication information in association withcommunication initiation information. For example, the computer system18 may host the publication system and accordingly respond to searchrequests from the computer system 10, as well as responding to a requestto establish a VoIP connection.

At operation 76, the contact module 22 of the system 10 may initiatecommunication between the viewing user and the publishing user. Thecommunication may be initiated through means discussed herein, such asVoIP, email, instant message, a web site, or other contact modules. Theselected contact module is loaded on the system 10 for connection to thepublishing user. In an example, the browser application 13, responsiveto the selection of a link, invokes a VoIP module which initiates acommunication in the form of a VoIP telephone call to the publishinguser 20 at the computer system 18. In this instance, a VoIP contactmodule is opened at the system 10, such as Skype®. There may be a URLlink utilized to invoke or download the VoIP contact module to thesystem 10 if not already present on the system 10.

Operation 76 is optional, for example, if a direct contact is made bythe second party to the first party, the contact module 22 may not beinitiated (e.g., the second party directly calls or emits the firstparty using the posted direct contact information).

At operation 78, the communication system 24 routes the communicationthrough the contact module 22 from the viewing/searching user to thepublishing user. In the instance of the assigned telephone number, thecommunication system 24 receives the call and routes the call to adirect line of the publishing user.

At operation 80, at the publishing user, a communication via the contactmodule is received. At the computer system 18, a VoIP module may respondto the received communication by generating an audible ringing soundthat may be heard by the publishing user 20, for instance. Further, theVoIP module may respond to a publishing user 20 that answers the call byestablishing a VoIP connection with the viewing user 12.

At operation 82, at the communication system 24, the communicationbetween the publishing user and the viewing user is tracked in adatabase as lead data record. For instance, the beginning and endingtime of the communication, as well as the contact medium (e.g., VoIP),may be tracked.

At operation 84, the lead data record is sent to the publication system16.

At operation 86, the publication system 16, upon receipt of the leaddata record, assesses an appropriate fee to the publishing user based onthe lead data record, as discussed herein.

Criteria for which a fee may be assessed may include which contactmodule (e.g., IM or e-mail) was selected by the second entity, whetherthe communication (e.g., IM session) exceeded a pre-set time duration,whether the communication session exceeded a pre-set number of messages,and whether a reply is sent by the first entity in response to aninitial message. Characteristics of the session may be monitored todetermine whether the contact (e.g., second entity) constitutes aqualified lead. For example, a teleconference or IM session that isinitiated but that is not received or that does not contain any contentmay not be recognized as a qualified lead in some embodiments. In otherembodiments, the duration of the teleconference or videoconference mustbe a minimum length, such as five or ten seconds, for the lead toconstitute a qualified lead. Similarly, where contact between apotential customer and a third-party vendor takes another form such ase-mail, the content, delivery, and length of the e-mail can be used todetermine whether the lead is a qualified lead. For example, an e-mailmessage that has no content, or that contains fewer than ten characters,may be ignored and not considered a qualified lead. Similarly, an e-mailthat can't be delivered, doesn't contain appropriate customer contactinformation, or that is from the same potential customer as anotherqualified lead can be ignored as a lead that is not qualified forpayment on a pay-per-lead basis.

The publication system may notify the first entity that a message wasjust received from the second entity. The publication system may onlypass part of the lead, for example, non-identifiable lead information,to the first entity. Just a query, for example, ‘do you have this car inred?’, may be passed along without contact information from the messagesender. The publication system may, instead of charging the entity forthe lead, enquire as to whether the first entity may be willing to pay afee for receiving contact information of the message sender. The firstentity may then make a more informed decision about some of the leadsthey may pay for.

FIG. 5 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the form of acomputer system 100 within which a set of instructions, for causing themachine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussedherein, may he executed.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in server-client network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a television, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular (ormobile) telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge,or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further,while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The computer system 100 includes a processor 102 (e.g., a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) or both), a mainmemory 104 and a static memory 106, which communicate with each othervia a bus 108. The computer system 100 may further include a videodisplay unit 110 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode raytube (CRT)). The computer system 100 also includes an alphanumeric inputdevice 112 (e.g., a. keyboard), a user interface (UI) navigation device114 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 116, a signal generation device118 (e.g., a speaker) and a network interface device 120.

The disk drive unit 116 includes a machine-readable medium 122 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g.,software 124) embodying or utilized by any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The software 124 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 104and/or within the processor 102 during execution thereof by the computersystem 100, the main memory 104 and the processor 102 also constitutingmachine-readable media.

The software 124 may further be transmitted or received over a network126 via the network interface device 120 utilizing any one of a numberof well-known transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP).

While the machine-readable medium 122 is shown in an embodiment to be asingle medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken toinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storethe one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium”shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing,encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machineand that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies described herein, or that is capable of storing, encodingor carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such a set ofinstructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly betaken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, opticaland magnetic media, and carrier wave signals.

Embodiments listed herein may include listings on the publication system16 other than auction-format listings, or may include “off-platform”listings, services listings, classifieds listings, personal listings,non-transactional listings, and/or highly configurable listings.

Applications that may include the apparatus and systems of variousembodiments broadly include a variety of electronic and computersystems. Some embodiments implement functions in two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals communicated between and through the modules, or as portions ofan application-specific integrated circuit. Thus, the example system isapplicable to software, firmware, and hardware implementations. Thevarious modules as described herein may be implemented as softwareand/or hardware. Thus, the term “module” may include an independentpiece of software which forms part of one or more larger programs.Additionally or alternatively, the term “module” may include a circuit(or part thereof) consisting of an assembly of electronic components(e.g., computer hardware).

Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specificexample embodiments, it may be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, thespecification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative ratherthan a restrictive sense.

1. A system comprising: a publication module configured to generate auser interface that includes search result information associated with afirst entity and communication initiation information associated withthe first entity, the communication initiation information identifying afirst contact module at a first computer system of the first entity, thefirst contact module having a contact module type, the communicationinitiation information being selectable to facilitate a communicationbetween the first contact module and a second contact module at a secondcomputer system of a second entity; and a processor configured by a feeassessment module to assess a fee to the first entity upon selection ofthe communication initiation information and based on the contact moduletype of the first contact module at the first computer system of thefirst entity.
 2. The system of claim 1 further comprising: a receivingmodule configured to receive a lead data record that stores acharacteristic of the communication between the first contact module andthe second contact module; and wherein the fee assessment moduleconfigures the processor to assess the fee based on the lead datarecord.
 3. A method comprising: generating a user interface thatincludes search result information associated with a first entity andcommunication initiation information associated with the first entity,the communication initiation information identifying a first contactmodule at a first computer of the first entity, the first contact modulehaving a contact module type, the communication initiation informationbeing selectable to facilitate a communication between the first contactmodule and a second contact module at a second computer of a secondentity; and assessing a fee to the first entity upon selection of thecommunication initiation information and based on the contact moduletype of the first contact module at the first computer of the firstentity, the assessing of the fee being performed by a processor of amachine.
 4. The method of claim 3 further comprising: receiving a leaddata record that stores a characteristic of the communication betweenthe first contact module and the second contact module; and wherein theassessing of the fee is based on the received lead data record.
 5. Themethod of claim 3, wherein: the communication initiation informationincludes an electronic mail link that at least initially hides anassociated electronic mail address of the first entity.
 6. The method ofclaim 3, wherein: the communication initiation information includes aninstant messaging link that at least initially hides an associatedinstant messaging name of the first entity.
 7. The method of claim 3,wherein: the communication initiation information includes a telephonecall link that at least initially hides an associated telephone numberof the first entity.
 8. The method of claim 3, wherein: the contactmodule type is selected from a group consisting of an electronic messagemodule type, an instant message module type, and a voice over Internetprotocol (VoIP) module type.
 9. The method of claim 3 furthercomprising: tracking a duration of the communication between the firstcontact module and the second contact module; and wherein the assessingof the fee is based on the tracked duration of the communication betweenthe first contact module and the second contact module.
 10. The methodof claim 3 further comprising: sending information regarding the secondentity to the first entity, the sent information being selected from agroup consisting of reputation information, feedback information, theprevious purchase category, a previous selling category, demographicinformation, contact information, and user information.
 11. The methodof claim 3, wherein: the search result information includes a searchresult among multiple search results generated in response to a searchquery; and the communication initiation information is associated withthe search result among the multiple search results generated inresponse to the search query.
 12. The method of claim 3, wherein: thecommunication initiation information includes an icon that is selectableto invoke the first contact module to initiate the communication betweenthe first contact module and the second contact module.
 13. The methodof claim 3, wherein: the communication initiation information includes alocater that identifies the first contact module at the first computer.14. The method of claim 3, wherein: the assessing of the fee is based ona monitored characteristic of the communication between the firstcontact module and the second contact module.
 15. The method of claim14, wherein: the monitored characteristic indicates that thecommunication is initiated and received; and the assessing of the fee isbased on the communication being initiated and received.
 16. The methodof claim 14, wherein: the monitored characteristic indicates that thecommunication has a duration that exceeds a minimum length; and theassessing of the fee is based on the communication having the durationthat exceeds the minimum length.
 17. The method of claim 14, wherein:the monitored characteristic indicates that the communication containscontent that exceeds a minimum number of characters; and the assessingof the fee is based on the communication containing the content thatexceeds the minimum number of characters.
 18. The method of claim 1,wherein: the first contact module is hosted by the first computer; andthe first computer hosts a browser application that displays thegenerated user interface that includes the communication initiationinformation.
 19. A non-transitory machine-readable storage mediumcomprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors ofa machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:generating a user interface that includes search result informationassociated with a first entity and communication initiation informationassociated with the first entity, the communication initiationinformation identifying a first contact module at a first computer ofthe first entity, the first contact module having a contact module type,the communication initiation information being selectable to facilitatea communication between the first contact module and a second contactmodule at a second computer of a second entity; and assessing a fee tothe first entity upon selection of the communication initiationinformation and based on the contact module type of the first contactmodule at the first computer of the first entity, the assessing of thefee being performed by the one or more processors of the machine. 20.The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, whereinthe operations further comprise: receiving a lead data record thatstores a characteristic of the communication between the first contactmodule and the second contact module; and wherein the assessing of thefee is based on the received lead data record.
 21. The non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: tracking a duration of the communication between thefirst contact module and the second contact module; and wherein theassessing of the fee is based on the tracked duration of thecommunication between the first contact module and the second contactmodule.